FREIGHT BILLING AS A SERVICE IMPROVES ACCURACY AND TURNAROUND TIME

REGULATORY EXPERTISE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE

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CASE STUDY

FREIGHT BILLING AS A SERVICE IMPROVES ACCURACY AND TURNAROUND TIME

Transportation and logistics companies ship over a billion tons of

cargo every year. This vast amount of goods is powered by advanced

technologies, hundreds of thousands of workers, fleets of vehicles – and

pieces of paper. For every shipment, there’s a bill of lading (BOL) saying

where it’s going and where it’s coming from.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers must enter and analyze every BOL

for every shipment they make. Though this process frequently gets

overlooked, it’s essential for maintaining efficient operations.

What makes bill entry a complicated process for LTL carriers is the fact

that these BOLs come in hundreds of different formats, are sometimes

submitted incomplete, and are usually entered by hand into a carrier’s

system. If these bills aren’t entered correctly, it creates complications

in getting the freight to the right destination with the right services at

the right time and the correct invoice. Delays in processing BOLs with

hazardous freight can result in expensive fines, which carriers want to

avoid at all costs due to the price-sensitive nature of their business.

The client, a leading LTL carrier, reached out to EXL to help transform

its billing process. EXL provided its Freight Billing as a Service (FBaaS)

solution, leading to better turnaround times, a reduction in average

handling times, and improved accuracy.

ContextSolving the client’s problem required context, combining EXL’s deep

domain experience in the transportation industry with advanced

analytics that could identify opportunities for improvement and

streamline the bill entry process.

This included solutions providing for real-time prioritization and

allocating bills based on their importance or special skills. For instance,

some bills require fast turnaround times, such as bills for hazardous

materials or cross-border bills. These critical bills could be automatically

allocated and tracked to ensure they were completed on time.

The high amount of variation between different types of BOLs meant

that employees had to have a high degree of experience to quickly

process the different forms from different companies. Not knowing

where to look for required information or understanding the details of

different BOLs for different companies can result in delays and mistakes.

By implementing an advanced optical character recognition tool for

assisted data entry, many of these BOLs are processed automatically,

cutting down on the chance for these errors.

“LTL carriers must enter and analyze every BOL for

every shipment they make. Though this process frequently

gets overlooked, it’s essential for maintaining efficient operations.”

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FREIGHT BILLING AS A SERVICE IMPROVES ACCURACY AND TURNAROUND TIME

Orchestration FBaaS fundamentally changed the BOL entry process by effectively

orchestrating people, data, and technological interventions. Analytics

and automation ensured that bills were prioritized based on their

unique circumstances, and machine learning helped the system

continually improve over time.

By using OCR and advanced automation to speed up the BOL entry

process, EXL was able to cut out much of the repetitive, mundane work

associated with bill entry. These technologies could quickly scan each

bill, automatically detect predefined text fields, and automatically copy

that data into the client’s systems. This let workers move from manually

entering every BOL that came across their desks to dealing with

exceptions or high-value bills.

This effectiveness was further augmented by machine learning. In cases

where there were exceptions, the program was able to monitor what

steps an employee took to resolve the problem, and potentially carry

those actions out automatically the next time that situation arose.

Doing so enabled the FBaaS solution to continually improve over time

and cut down on the amount of future exceptions.

Outcomes The solution accomplished the client’s goal. The average turnaround

time for these bills dropped by 63%. Errors in the bill entry process also

decreased, saving the client money by reducing the chance for costly

penalties from broken regulations or delayed cargo. As a result, the

client was well positioned to see its revenue improve from decreased

billing errors and a streamlined billing processes.

“ By using OCR and advanced automation to speed up the BOL entry process, EXL was able to cut out much of the repetitive, mundane work associated with bill entry.”

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FREIGHT BILLING AS A SERVICE IMPROVES ACCURACY AND TURNAROUND TIME

EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a leading operations management and analytics company that designs and enables agile, customer-centric operating models to help clients improve their revenue growth and profitability. Our delivery model provides market-leading business outcomes using EXL’s proprietary Business EXLerator Framework®, cutting-edge analytics, digital transformation and domain expertise. At EXL, we look deeper to help companies improve global operations, enhance data-driven insights, increase customer satisfaction, and manage risk and compliance. EXL serves the insurance, healthcare, banking and financial services, utilities, travel, transportation and logistics industries. Headquartered in New York, New York, EXL has more than 27,000 professionals in locations throughout the United States, Europe, Asia (primarily India and Philippines), South America, Australia and South Africa.

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Context

• Bill entry is a highly manual, error-prone process due to non-structured, non-formatted data

• Client needed to transform its billing process to be faster and more accurate

• EXL implemented applied domain expertise and advanced analytics to transform the bill entry process

Orchestration

• Automation enabled workers moved from manually entering every BOL to only dealing with exceptions

• Machine learning allowed the solution to continually improve and learn from its errors over time

Outcomes

• Streamlined bill entry process

• 63% reduction in average handle time

• Decreased billing errors

SOLUTION SUMMARY

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